The courtyard of the historic Fox Theater in Fullerton has already gotten a face-lift. JEBB HARRIS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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The Fox Theatre has two chandeliers on its ceiling. They were cranked down by hand whenever the light bulbs needed to be cleaned or replaced. They will be motorized during the renovation. H. LORREN AU JR., STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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The Balboa Theater screened its last film on Dec. 1, 1991. FILE PHOTO: STAFF

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Dayna Pettit, president of the Balboa Performing Arts Theater Foundation, seen here in 2001, stands in the foyer of what was expected to be the refurbished Balboa Theater. Pettit has raised money since 1995 to reopen the historic theater. FILE PHOTO: STAFF

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The Balboa Theater is seen here in its heyday, looking northwest on East Balboa Boulevard. COURTESY OF THE ORANGE COUNTY ARCHIVES

Leland Wilson, a former Fullerton mayor, has been working toward the restoration of the historic Fox Theatre in downtown Fullerton. H. LORREN AU JR., STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A look at some historic theaters

• Bay Theatre

340 Main Street, Seal Beach

Opened: 1947

Seats: About 662

Status: Closed in 2012

• Balboa Village Theatre

707 E. Balboa Blvd., Newport Beach

Opened: 1927

Seats: Potentially 300

Status: Closed in 1992

• Port Theater

2905 East Coast Highway, Corona del Mar

Opened: 1949

Seats: 180

Status: Reopened in 2012

• Regency Lido Theater

3459 Via Lido, Newport Beach

Opened: 1938

Seats: 622

Status: Open

• Fox Theatre

Corner of North Harbor Boulevard and Chapman Avenue, Fullerton

Opened: 1925

Seats: 800 to 1,000

Status: Renovations underway

• Miramar Theater

1700 N. El Camino Real, San Clemente

Opened: 1938

Seats: approximately 750

Status: Closed in 1992

Sources: City of San Clemente, City of Newport Beach, Fullerton Historic Theatre Foundation, theater websites, and cinematreasures.org.

NEWPORT BEACH – Sunshine streams through a hole in the ceiling of the empty 87-year-old Balboa Village Theatre, lighting the sand floor and grafittied interior walls.

“I really thought we were going to do it,” says Dayna Pettit, a local Realtor who has crusaded for nearly 20 years to reopen the historic cinema, which closed in 1992. “I remember Disneyland donated red velvet seats.”

Today, there are no red velvet seats. No big screen. No marquee.

City lawmakers have given theater backers until the year’s end to raise $2 million to get a matching loan from the city, which owns the building. Supporters say $4 million is enough to rehabilitate and reopen the rundown theater near the Balboa Pier.

If backers beat the clock, the theater could be key to revitalizing a tired strip of Balboa. If they fail – something lawmakers say is unlikely – a piece of local history might be lost.

A similar process is playing out in cities as diverse as Fullerton, Seal Beach and San Clemente, plus places such as Vacaville, Mill Valley and Downtown Los Angeles, where last year the historic Rialto Theatre reopened as an Urban Outfitters. Some wonder if the old theaters, emblems of a bygone era, can find relevance today.

Some powerful forces seem aligned against such transformations: shrinking public arts spending, an explosion of entertainment choices, a widespread decline in moviegoing, and a push for money-making developments by cash-strapped cities.

But there are those who cherish memories made in the single-screen landmarks, which often anchor a historic downtown.

Seal Beach resident Benny Rapp was 9 when he plunked down a dime to take his first date to the Bay Theatre in 1952, he wrote on the website of a local group trying to buy the theater.

“Those were the good old days,” he wrote.

Today, the Seal Beach venue, like the Balboa Village Theatre, struggles to reopen.

GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA

The Balboa Village Theatre opened in the late 1920s, a time when nearly two out of three Americans went at least once a week to a movie theater. Later, locals remember the theater hosting midnight showings of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

But in 1992, the theater closed, its revival house format unable to survive in a parking-starved area that attracted fewer tourists. The city bought it in 1998.

Pettit, a Newport Beach resident for 50 years, says the fate of the theater and the neighborhood are intertwined.

Like the theater, the neighborhood thrived in the early part of the last century, when the Pacific Electric Red Car line whisked thousands of visitors to the Balboa Peninsula from Los Angeles.

“Balboa has kind of been forgotten,” Pettit said. “My idea was this was going to bring Balboa back to life.”

Over the years, donors contributed more than $5 million to the project – money that was eaten up by code and seismic upgrades, plus increasingly lofty plans for the 5,000-square-foot cinema.

Pettit recalls a bulldozer ballet, staged outdoors with dancers and actual Bobcat ditch-diggers in anticipation of construction that never happened.

“People were losing interest,” Pettit said. “They thought we were never going to get this open.”

SUCCESS STORIES

Fullerton residents rallied to reopen the historic Fox Theatre after the city shut it down for seismic violations in 1987, said Leland Wilson, a former mayor. In 2004, the city redevelopment agency and the Fullerton Historic Theatre Foundation split the $3.2 million cost to buy it.

“It’s part of the historic fabric of our downtown,” said Wilson, the theater foundation president. “It’s authentic and people want to have that experience.”

The dream is to transform the Fox into a venue for movies and live entertainment, and to make it the center of a shopping and dining cluster in Fullerton’s bustling downtown.

So far, roughly $14 million in renovations has gone into the Fox project, which includes two attached buildings. The money has come from a mix of grants, cash, donations and a loan from the city redevelopment agency, Wilson said.

Another $15 million is needed to finish the complex. – A coffee shop and a restaurant have already signed leases in areas that are complete, he said. Wilson said the entire operation is expected to turn a profit and generate $1.5 million in annual revenue when the project is finished in about five years.

“That lease revenue is our bread and butter,” he said.

Successful community theaters employ a variety of ways to make money, according to Karie Bible, a box office analyst and film historian with Exhibitor Relations, a Los Angeles-based industry research firm. She calls the concept “adaptive reuse.”

It’s an idea the Regency Lido Theatre and Port Theater in Newport Beach have adopted. The Lido recently announced plans to host live concerts, while the Port dishes up made-to-order pizzas and serves cocktails, beer and wine in the theater.

But for every theater success story, there are tales of struggles.

Nick Carabetta started a foundation to buy the Bay Theatre in Seal Beach a few months before the owner shut the doors and listed the 1940s-era cinema for sale in 2012.

Now 29-year-old Carabetta, a manager at a downtown cafe, is waiting for the IRS to process the nonprofit paperwork he filed last July. He has heard rumors the owner might reopen, but said that doesn’t change the foundation’s plans.

Meanwhile, plans to reopen the Miramar Theater in San Clemente, which closed some 20 years ago, remain in a “holding pattern” over an ownership dispute, according to John Ciampa, associate city planner.

Some have described the 1930s-era Miramar as “blighted” and “shameful.”

Bible, a cinema historian, said theaters that languish empty for years pose a danger of depressing nearby property values. But those that succeed attract visitors, and income, to a neighborhood.

“Let’s face it, there are Urban Outfitters all over the place in most cities across the country,” Bible said. “Something historic makes an area unique and can be a valuable asset to the community.”

BALBOA’S SECOND CHANCE

This time around, the renovations of the Balboa Village Theatre are expected to run $4 million, said Steve Beazley, the theater president.

The former chief executive of the OC Fair & Event Center, Beazley oversaw the reopening of the once-embattled Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa.

If all goes as planned, the 300-seat venue, which last year was renamed the Balboa Village Theatre, could open in the second half of 2015, offering a varied roster of live music, lectures, movies and even jugglers. Organizations and school groups could rent the space.

Newport Beach City Council members voted 6-1 in March to approve the tentative $2 million loan deal, but imposed a string of conditions. Final approval hinges on cost estimates and a complete business plan subject to council review.

Then there’s the money. Beazley said the foundation has raised $500,000; it must raise $1.5 million more by Dec. 31.

Even so, Beazley remains optimistic. He sees the theater’s revival as the spark that brings Balboa back to its heyday.

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